Sy Reene

Curious.. you get the rental price toward a brand new bike or just $100-200 (rental price) off of the new price of what's effectively a used bike?

eflayer

my shop would have let me take out the new bike i was considering for a day for $100. so i guess in some way it would be considered used when i was done for the day. and, yes, they would have applied that rental price to the purchase price of that bike. had i decided not to buy it, i am sure they would have inspected it for damage, cleaned it up really well, and considered it to be "new" when i was done. i think all shops encourage test rides of new bikes. are they "used" after someone takes a test ride?

Sy Reene

Thanks.. I was just curious what expectations are with these arrangements. After one test ride... it's barely used (on ebay it would be maybe listed as a 'demo'?). But if the same bike is continually used as the demo bike, and it's been thru 10+ such rides, I'd hope the shop would sell it and indicate as such.

eflayer

maybe that happens when the test ride / rental bike comes back with marks that would make it obviously not "new" anymore. if visually you can't tell it's been ridden then maybe that's ok?

N00b_Cyclist

I also just bought a Domane SLR7 w/ Ultegra Di2 and so far I'm loving it. I haven't climbed a ton with it, but the little bit I did do felt great. It will never be an Emonda, but for those times you aren't climbing 13% gradients, the comfort and smoothness of the ride is so so good.

one4smoke

Yeah, doesn't the rider make more of a difference in this category ...than the bike??

dvdslw

Since we're talking about climbing, I wanted to add that the 2019 slr9 56cm with the 600 series carbon, Dura Ace di2, and the Bontrager xxx2 wheelset weighs 16.4lbs complete without pedals and one of the reasons I chose this frame over the 2020 sl frameset. Have any of you Domane owners had your bike on a scale? If so, what does it weigh? I know a pound or two doesn't really mean a whole lot to an overweight recreational rider but I've always come to appreciate the feel of a lightweight bike. I believe my 60cm build with Ultegra di2 instead of DA will have me in the 18lb +/- range.

noodle soup

under 18 pounds is realistic without going weightweenie. Mine is a touch under 17pounds, but I have a lighter frameset.

Don’t sweat the weight, but look at the fit difference. It’s a huge difference from your current ride.

drewtk

I test rode the 2020 Domane (SL5 trim) and current Roubaix back to back on some rough and smooth roads near my LBS. The Domane is markedly smoother over rough surfaces, even the front end. I was expecting the Roubaix to be better at least in damping out front end vibration but that wasn't the case.

My wife was with me so we were swapping bikes back and forth. She had the exact same conclusion. The Roubaix is more agile, if that matters to you. But for comfortably chewing up the miles, the Domane was fantastic.

CarloM

I don't have either bike so I have no dog in this race, but I do hope the tires/wheels/PSI were somewhat similar or comparable between the two, because in my experience they can make a world of difference.

A recent example. There was a Trek Madone SLR7 (the Di2 build) on clearance that I was going to consider. Owning an S3 I didn't need another aero bike, but N+1 right? So I took my S3 out to the LBS and rode it back to back multiple times over an hour, switching back and forth between the two every 10 minutes. To my surprise, my S3 felt more comfortable and compliant, while still being feeling just as fast, even when I had the shop max out the Isospeed setting. I wondered for a while how this could be, given the Madone (and Isospeed's) reputation as being one of the most compliant aero bikes.

Then I realized the SLR7 was equipped with Aeolus Pro 5 (the affordable Bontrager carbon line) and stock tires at 90psi, whereas my S3 was on ENVE 5.6s set up tubeless with Conti 5Ks 25c at 65psi (I weigh 145 so that's around where ENVE recommends).

That was my first true real-world lesson at how much of a difference wheels, tires, tubeless and PSI can make. By all accounts the Madone is a more comfortable, compliant frame. But you couldn't tell if you rode the Madone's stock setup vs. my S3's current setup back-to-back.

Ultimately I didn't end up buying the Madone, but not because of the test ride comparison. I knew if I bought it and put the same/similar tires and wheels it would transform the ride. I just didn't need to spend another 6K on a bike that might be only marginally better than the S3 (and even that was no guarantee).

drewtk

Totally agree. The Domane had 32mm tires and the Roubaix had 28mm. I put 10 psi less in the Domane tires to account for the difference in width. Would I still have preferred the Domane if the Roubaix had 32mm tires? Who knows but that's how the bikes were set up.